


The Quest

by Nununununu



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Attraction, Childhood Friends, Don't copy to another site, Exploration, F/M, Getting Together, Historical, Misunderstandings, Pre-Relationship, Reunions, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26987983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: He’d come a long way by ship, carriage, horseback, cart and finally the power of his own two feet to get here on this very first adventure – the first, or so he very much wished, of many – cheerfully giving up all the little idle luxuries of his admittedly somewhat cossetted upbringing in favour of the opportunity to do his utmost to do what others had so far failed and to track down the Mythical Beast.When Montgomery finds her however, she's not at all what - or, rather, who - he expects.
Relationships: Adventurer on a quest/Monstergirl he doesn't realize is the Kidnapped Princess, Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Canon Ball 2020





	The Quest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HostisHumaniGeneris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/gifts).



> For HostisHumaniGeneris :)
> 
> (Summary updated 24.11)

“Now _those_ are quite some footprints!” Wiping his forehead with his handkerchief – blast his slowness to adjust to this heat! – and pushing his spectacles up higher on his nose, Montgomery whipped his trusty pen, sketchbook and measuring tape out of his sturdy pack.

He was halfway through recording the details of this most recent discovery when the abundance of insect and animal noise around him went curiously silent.

“What have we here now?” Stowing away pen, tape and sketchbook, Montgomery went for the sword at his hip, a grin starting to tug at his lips as anticipation beat in his chest. He’d come a long way by ship, carriage, horseback, cart and finally the power of his own two feet to get here on this very first adventure – the first, or so he very much wished, of many – cheerfully giving up all the little idle luxuries of his admittedly somewhat cossetted upbringing in favour of the opportunity to do his utmost to do what others had so far failed and to track down the Mythical Beast.

To find the kidnapped Princess too, as that would see him in good stead with the Queen, which would be a bonus when it came to making things up after the falling out he’d had with his father, the Pater always such a stickler for proprietary and with no more ambition than a bottle of port and a day at his Club.

And also –

Well. Ultimately, when it came right down to it, he was also rather of a mind to locate the kidnapped Princess for his own personal reasons, those being –

A bead of sweat trickled down from Montgomery’s temple to his cheek as the hair rose on the back of his neck with the certainty he was watched. Indeed, now was not a time to let one’s mind wander!

His grip loose and ready on his sword, he turned a slow circle in the clearing he was in – as much as the dense undergrowth ever allowed for a ‘clearing’ in this part of the world – and peered through the gloom ever present beneath the canopy in search of the owner of those footprints.

The jungle remained uncannily silent. His heart beat harder with the hope his unseen opponent was no great cat or any such creature, but was the Beast, the one that all those in the know hungered to catch even a glimpse of, the one they spoke about in hushed murmurs, the one detailed only in snippets and carefully veiled references in even the more daring publications, lest it upset the Queen. It had first come to light when it had carried off the Princess from her tower in the palace in the good old homeland, after all – no one wished to be so gauche as to be the one responsible for putting in words the possibility that the poor defenceless royal damsel had likely not been merely kidnapped, but more probably eaten.

Montgomery had used to go riding with the Princess, when they were both young whippersnappers and his Old Man a regular at the hunting parties thrown back then by the Queen – she had quite understandably lost the taste for it these days, in light of what had happened. But though he hadn’t seen the Princess – who had been known to him back then by her name, which was Irene – for near enough a decade and a half, Montgomery was certain that if the adult Princess resembled in any way his hot-blooded childhood friend, Irene would have not allowed herself to be taken without a lot of appallingly ferocious struggling and like as not no few blows to her attacker’s head.

Montgomery’s own head still smarted occasionally with the memory of some of her better knocks back from when they’d tussled as raw-kneed seven year olds, tumbled off from their horses and into the undergrowth away from the Palace. Irene had dreamed of being a bare-knuckle boxer even back then; Montgomery had wanted to run away to be a sailor at sea. Neither of them had ever thought it probable they would succeed in their dream.

Well, he had succeeded in a sense – he had hauled ropes and scurried up the rigging with the rest of them, however the crew had circumspectly stared at the ‘gentleman pretender’ at first – and if some Beast had managed to somehow make a snack out of his childhood friend, then he was going to track it down, haul it back to the old homeland, and present it as a gift to the Queen. He would also get his name in all the papers and the _Adventurer’s Own_ journals, of course, but there was nothing that could be done about that.

Caught between fury towards the Mythical Beast for its potential wrongdoings and preening at the imagined headlines, Montgomery was left to curse himself for his inattention all over again when said Mythical Beast charged out at him without warning from between a dense patch of tangled vines.

He’d been right, at least, he had time to reflect when a huge fist caught him under the chin and sent him sailing into the undergrowth and his sword off elsewhere – the creature _had_ made those prints.

*

He woke, his jaw smarting, sometime later, a goose egg on the back of his head from where his skull had been introduced with some force into a trunk, and a great monstrous _something_ peering at him from really quite too near.

“I would thank you if you could take a step back,” He said a little primly – and a little snide – which hadn’t been how he’d planned to introduce himself to the Mythical Beast whatsoever, and fumbled for his least mud-soaked handkerchief to clean his spectacles with, in the hope that better vision would allow for a better understanding of the Beast.

“I’m _not_ going back with you,” The Beast snarled, or it sounded very much like it did, and Montgomery replaced his spectacles on his nose to discover that it had his pack out open before it and the contents dug out from therein, his sketchbook, diary and most recent issue of _Adventurer’s Own_ spread out for easy perusal, the latest opened on the pages where a grainy photograph of himself was printed above his declaration to set sail in search of –

Well, _her._ Apparently.

“I beg your pardon?” Montgomery found he replied, somewhat befuddled both from the blows and the certainty that his ears had misinterpreted the snarl, his attention caught up by the fact that the Beast appeared to be not only possess a rather impressive collection of horns and claws and fangs, but also –

Etiquette insisted that he avert his eyes, which Montgomery managed to do post haste, to the feeling of blood rushing into his cheeks and his ears – he had never expected the Beast to have _cleavage_. The – er, Lady Beast.

Although really, taking in the obvious strength of her arms and the powerful lines of her back and thighs, such a title seemed ridiculous.

All his thoughts of dragging the Beast back to the old country fled from him as he sat slumped with much less than his usual dignity against the tree that had so stunned him – this creature was the most beautiful specimen he had ever seen.

No, not a specimen. And not a creature, either – she had the most splendid tail, yes, and the most delightful-looking fur covered her in place of conventional garments, but the intelligence in her expression was crystal clear and the fiery look in her eyes made a mockery of any notion concerning a lack of sapience.

She was, to put it quite simply, magnificent. Montgomery had always shied away from the sort of ‘literature’ he considered aimed at a far more delicate audience than intrepid Adventurers, but drinking in the stunning example of a new species before him now, he rather felt the urge to come up with some suitably poetical adjectives.

“I. Am. Not. Going. Back. With. You,” Rising first to all fours and then pushing herself up onto her feet to stalk towards him, the woman repeated, “My mother won’t allow me to do _anything_ in this form and I refuse to be confined any longer to a false human shape!”

“I wouldn’t dare to presume that you would return with me, although if it pleased you, _you_ could take _me_ anywhere you might wish,” Montgomery’s mouth chose to reply a little faintly and independently of his brain, his gaze fixed most determinedly on the woman’s face however he might be appallingly tempted to glance further down, startling despite himself when she squinted at him abruptly and shook her head on a most indelicate snort. He scraped his wits together with some effort, “But if you would be so kind as to tell me your name?”

“You don’t recognise me at all, do you?” She squatted close enough to him to reach out and jostle his shoulder, before miming a more gentle punch to his head than the one she had delivered earlier to his chin. Which –

The woman was still monstrous and glorious and he was already half convinced he worshipped her, but –

“What?” Blinking behind his spectacles, memory stirred irrepressibly within the soft press of Montgomery’s admittedly overtaxed brain. He couldn’t help it whatsoever when the name fell out from his lips, “ _Irene_?”

He couldn’t believe it. But he could see it now in the shape of her face, even a decade and a half older; even with horns and claws and so changed.

The Princess hadn’t been kidnapped by a mythical creature. She _was_ the Beast.

“It’s lucky you’re pretty,” Sighing, Irene shook her head, even as she clipped him teasingly around the ear, a blow that did no damage at all, just as a spark of humour danced in her intelligent eyes, “You never picked up on the fact I’m only half-human when we were young either, did you, despite all my increasingly blatant efforts to hint.”

“I –” Language was lost to Montgomery at this revelation; he could only compel his mouth closed again. Although there was something that needed to be said, “I most sincerely apologise.”

For his presumptions, of which there had been many. For not recognising her. For lusting after her so instantly and based on her appearance. For failing to write to her and keep up their acquaintance when his father had seen him sent to boarding school in the far off provinces as punishment for his childhood insubordination, a crime Montgomery had carried with him through to adulthood nonetheless.

For having wanted the fame and adulation back home very nearly as much as he’d wanted to find his friend.

“I’ll hit you over the head again if you need it,” Her mouth quirking, Irene assured him, before patting him on the shoulder, the tips of her claws piercing through his clothing to prick his skin – only lightly, yet enough to make him shiver all the same. Her gaze was tracking across his limbs much as if she found him almost as fascinating as he did her, “Now, you were saying something about me taking you away?”

Her tail inscribed a slow curve from side to side in anticipation of his answer.

“ _Gladly_ ,” Beaming, Montgomery didn’t make her wait.


End file.
